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CTSL crash on the national news today


Skunkworks85

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On 9/4/2022 at 7:09 AM, ct9000 said:

The first one, the engine went to idle power with little warning turning downwind on climb out on the second circuit test flight. Completed the circuit landing on the departure runway, landed a bit long but no problem just as nervous as hell The second failure was with some warning after low fuel pressure alarm then running very rough and could only get about 3000 RPM not enough to maintain height was able to put it down on a model aircraft club facility. The next two I shut down and did a forced landing into open farm land. The glide performance with the prop stopped is marginally better than idle but not really much. I managed to get through my first 2300 hours without an engine/power loss then four in the next 30 hours. Since then another 250 hours and no engine problem..

A little more on stopped props....

I put together a POH for my RANS Coyote II-6ES back in 2003 at Buckeye Airport near Phoenix, a wide and long runway, uncontrolled. With an experienced Coyote pilot in the left seat and me in shotgun, we set up multiple high straight-in approaches and shut off the engine/stopped the prop to get accurate "engine off" performance numbers with relative airspeed/rate of descent. My job was to record the numbers (pre-iPhone video capabilities) while he flew. Don't try both at once. Fly it all the way down to the landing and roll to a stop.

You will be very surprised  how fast the airplane comes down with a stopped prop as compared to windmilling. It is worth experiencing with an experienced pilot along for the ride, and you will probably have a passenger along anyway when it quits. Been there.

Or, take a large square piece of cardboard outside on a very windy day, hold it up directly into the wind, and see how draggy it is. You will be surprised.  Be safe.

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I turned off the engine on my CTLS, and left it windmilling and also stopped it. Neuform prop when I did this test (havent tried with e-prop yet).

It ended up being around 50-75 feet per minute difference on 700-800 feet per minute average at best glide.

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